Abstract:
Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of manual identification and localization methods of gold fiducial marker (GFM) in prostate cancer radiotherapy based on MRI.
Methods Sixteen patients with prostate cancer who were treated in Tangshan People's Hospital from June 2019 to June 2021 were included in this prospective study. The age of patients was (58.5±4.1) years. All the patients received radiotherapy localization CT scan after the implantation of three GFMs. Single-sequence (SS) and combined sequence (CS) method were used for MRI scanning for all the patients. All GFMs on the images obtained by the two sequencing methods were manually identified and located by five radiologists. The average coordinates of a single GFM center (CsGFM) and three GFM space centroids (CmGFM) were calculated. The consistency of the two sequencing methods was evaluated using Bland-Altman method. Sequencing accuracy was determined by comparison with CT localization and calculation of the imter-marker distance (IMD) of GFM. The difference between groups was analyzed by paired sample t test.
Results The positive rate of GFM identification by SS method was 79.17% (38/48), and that of CS method was 93.75% (45/48). (1) In SS method, the range of 95% limit of agrecment (LoA) between the GFM central coordinate calculated by each radiologist and the mean value of CsGFM coordinates in left-right, superior-inferior, and anterior-posterior directions were −1.46–0.97, −1.06–1.73, and −1.96–1.12 mm, respectively; in CS method, the values were −0.79–1.09, 0.10–1.47, and −0.87–1.40 mm, respectively. In SS method, the 95%LoA of the three GFM space centroid coordinates calculated by each radiologist and the mean value of CmGFM coordinates in left-right, superior-inferior, and anterior-posterior directions were −1.38–0.94, −1.60–1.07, and −1.07–1.75 mm, respectively; in CS method, the values were −0.57–0.76, −0.71–0.98, and −1.16–0.76 mm, respectively. (2) For accuracy, compared with CT localization, the IMD in SS method was (0.59±0.39) mm, which was significantly higher than that in CS method (0.32±0.17) mm. The difference was statistically significant (t=−1.89, P=0.027).
Conclusion The effectiveness of two manual identification and localization methods of GFM based on MRI can meet the clinical requirement. The positive rate, localization consistency and accuracy of CS method are superior to those of SS method.